Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

giant bubble. Soon, I knew the bubble would pop and allow him through.
    I fired. I couldn’t take the chance he would get away and leave me here. I snapped off round after round. This time, as I got closer, I hit him.
    He went down on one knee. He crawled into the rip, but before he could make it all the way inside, I grabbed him and pulled him back. I threw him down on the ground and stood over him.
    He was a mess. Two rounds in the chest, one in the leg. His breath whistled in his lungs. Blood was already frothing in his mouth. I lowered my pistol to my side.
    “You shouldn’t have ambushed us,” I said.
    “You should have left well enough alone. Why couldn’t you be happy winning at the slots with my wife?”
    I felt a sting of guilt, even though I knew I shouldn’t. This guy had abandoned Jenna. He’d been part of a number of murders. But it was still hard to watch him die at my feet.
    “I’m hurting,” he said. “Take me out of here before the slugs come. You can fix me up.”
    I shook my head. “Give me some quick answers first.”
    “OK, just heal me enough to breathe.”
    I blinked at him. “Heal you?”
    “Yeah, you idiot. Use the picture.”
    I stared, then rummaged in my pockets. I pulled out the photo I’d been carrying since awakening in the sanatorium.
    “This?” I asked.
    Nodding and coughing, Robert reached for it. Reluctantly, I let him take it. I figured if it was a trick, if he could use it as a weapon against me, my talisman should stop the attack.
    He grabbed it and held it to his chest in relief. He rubbed it on the bloody holes in his shirt. The blood didn’t stick to the photo. It was impossible to stain it. The sight was an odd one.
    “Better,” he said, breathing less shallowly.
    I shook my head. “The photo has the power of healing? Does it dissolve bullets or what?”
    “No,” he said. “Don’t you know what your own stuff does? God, what a number Meng did on your head. That’s your trademark object, Draith. Fast healing. Remember now?”
    I did, in a way. I recalled being known for fast healing. I’d been sure I could leave the hospital despite all my injuries. I’d confidently removed my cast. I nodded.
    “It doesn’t exactly
heal
you, it’s more that it stabilizes you—moving you to what you once were,” Robert explained. He sounded hurt and tired, but no longer on death’s door.
    “What if I shoot you in the head?” I asked. “Will it heal that?”
    Robert looked up at me with narrowed eyes. “I’d rather not find out,” he said.
    “Then tell me who you work for.”
    “Already did. Rostok—the Community.”
    “Maybe we should go have a chat with him then,” I said.
    Robert laughed, but the laughter quickly shifted into a nasty coughing fit. “You’re as crazy as ever,” he said. “Help me up and into the rip. It goes back to the Lucky Seven.”
    I didn’t move. “What is this place, exactly?”
    “I don’t know that. I’m not sure anyone does. But it is an existence that connects others. You can go through it to other places, if you live. Some worlds are like that. Small, but tightly interconnected. Our world is bigger.”
    “And the world of the Gray Men?”
    “Big, like ours.”
    I nodded, believing what he said. It added up with what McKesson had told me days ago. He’d talked about getting lost in a place full of bright light and radiation. He’d talked about getting into and out of that world of white glare. Maybe this place was similar.
    I helped Robert get to his feet, not knowing what else to ask. I figured that even with my photo, he wasn’t immortal.He was still bleeding and turning paler as the seconds ticked by.
    More importantly, the rip looked like it was going to fade soon. I didn’t want to be left here hoping I could figure out how to create a new one. I took my photo back from his rubbery fingers, and we stepped into the rip.
    We appeared on rich carpets of burgundy framed with green. It had to be the Lucky Seven. I looked around and recognized the lobby area outside Rostok’s office. Apparently not everything Robert had told me was a lie. I let him flop in a chair, barely conscious.
    I tapped on Rostok’s door. The door swung quietly open, just as it had before. The interior was dark, as always. A dim light ran along the bottom of every piece of furniture, limning it with a ghostly nimbus. I entered, leaving Robert in the chair outside. The door swung shut behind me.

“Your boy Robert is in pretty bad